They always say you’ll have the time of your life at school, but things couldn’t be further from the truth for Daryl in Super Daryl Deluxe. Newly enrolled at Water Falls High School, he quickly becomes wrapped up in a textbook profiteering business with fellow pupils Alan and Paul, but as time passes, Daryl begins to discover an underbelly of mystery as students and teachers go missing (as well as the fact that the classrooms have been locked up for weeks). In order to become the most popular kid in town, he’ll have to face the audacious task of roaming the school hallways to find an answer to the problem plaguing the establishment.
This is a really fun story that manages to be both surprising and incredibly humorous in many ways. Witty writing in both text conversations and cutscenes keep up the funny streak as interactions with Alan and Paul regularly concluded in a laugh or two from us. In a more surprising move, you’ll encounter famous people from the past throughout the campaign who also joke about their achievements and play about with how that influenced the world of today. There aren’t many jaw-dropping twists or revelations to be uncovered, but the plot is sure to impress you with its wit and charm at the very least.
At its heart, Super Daryl Deluxe is a side-scrolling brawler that tasks you with taking advantage of numerous abilities to eliminate enemies. As well as that, you’ll also be engaging with some light platforming and puzzle mechanics. Daryl can have up to four skills equipped at any one time, all operating on a cooldown. With each one mapped to a face button, you’ll use them to kill any foes in your way, and combine them to deal even more damage. One minute you could be slicing and dicing a foe with Sharp Comments, then clamping them in a bear trap with Catching Lies, and finishing them off with a tsunami as you unleash Ride The Tide. With over 40 skills to choose from, there’s so much variety on offer which enables you to experiment and shape Daryl to your preferred playstyle. There’s melee combat, ranged attacks, status ailments to inflict, and even more to keep things fresh if you want to switch things up.
Beating up your opponent will reward you with both XP and skill-specific XP, and these feed into two different upgrade systems. SXP can be spent on enhancing the aforementioned abilities, while XP boosts the character of Daryl with increased health and access to new equipment. Unfortunately, this is one of the few areas where Super Daryl Deluxe is ever so slightly lacking due to the variety found within the skills themselves, it’s then disappointing that you can only ever improve their damage output. Some more customisation in this area would have been appreciated.
Outside of combat, you’re free to roam the grounds and hallways of Water Falls High School as you please. Exploration is rewarded with an abundance of side-quests that’ll have you searching high and low for all manner of things. A lot of them are fetch quests, but the humorous streak that runs through the entire game makes them a bit more enjoyable than the bog standard template. Elsewhere, there are secrets to discover, rare items to find, and padlock combinations to uncover. Finding one of these will allow you to unlock a fellow pupil’s locker and take their stash, but finding out which one is theirs is just as much of a challenge as locating the code in the first place. Not all of it is especially deep, but the side content is sure to keep you interested past the 12-or-so-hour campaign.
Graphically, Super Daryl Deluxe is spectacular. Its art style manages to make even the dull grey walls of the school’s hallways stand out, while the character of Daryl is particularly striking with a red tone that runs throughout his outfit. Every classmate you meet has their own look and style, while environments manage to look grungy and cool when they need to, and stylish and flashy when you wander somewhere else.
Conclusion
Super Daryl Deluxe is one of the coolest games on Nintendo Switch right now. Its skill-based combat will have you coming back for more as you unlock numerous abilities that change the game, the story will have you laughing with its witty through line, and the visual presentation is a sight to behold thanks to a stylish art style that is sure to please. If you ever need a bit of a pick me up, there’s not much better than playing Super Daryl Deluxe on the go.
Comments 35
This looks just the right amount of craziness for my taste. I think I will give it a try.
Great news. Been looking forward to this since it was announced. Looks like a lot fun.
This caught my attention last week. Glad to know it lives up to the promise! On my wishlist it goes.
Looks amazing to me. Sold.
Huh. Well that's a pleasant surprise. Definitely going to keep an eye on this title.
how much is this?
Adding to wishlist and waiting for a sale. It looks like fun and has stylish graphics.
@derty $20, I believe.
wow, 4 on pushsquare and 8 here lol
@manu0 This actually makes me really happy. It shows me that they don't consult each other to make sure they're giving a politically correct score. Helps me trust that whatever score is given is an honest reflection of that reviewers opinion.
Personally, I've found numerical scores to be fairly arbitrary anyway. It's far more important to try to understand why a specific person did or didn't like the game, and as long as their explanation comes through in the review, I'm happy.. The pushsquare reviewer is only 17, so perhaps expectations/preferences are a bit different as well. I'll admit, that is a pretty drastic difference in score.
@manu0 you beat me to it was just gonna point that out such a gulf between the scores think I might give this a miss
@roadrunner343 why would you even think that they're doing that? lol
@manu0 Depends on who you mean by "they" - I don't think it's at all uncommon for media outlets to check other outlets scores before posting their own, just to make sure they're not saying something absolutely bonkers. I would imagine that would be even easier to check with sister sites. I don't frequent push square (I don't own a PS4) and I have no reason to believe NL/PS do this, merely stating this score reaffirms my belief.
I thought this looked cool. Good review. Add it to the list of games I need.
This is exactly what I need in my life right now.
A lot of quality Indies as of late.....and really most of Switch's short existence. Really makes me wish I had more time and unlimited money
The main character reminds me a bit too much of Napoleon Dynamite for my comfort.
Daryl looks like he's straight out of Napoleon Dynamite.
I was considering this at first because of that alone.
@Ralizah I swear I didn't see your comment before posting mine. 😂
@roadrunner343 : I don't think this game is designed for 17 year olds anyway (it appears to have an 80s/90s sensibility).
Why do they even have reviewers that are barely out of their nappies?
This game caught my eye in the e-shop's coming soon section, and this review makes me really want it. Just sounds weird and enjoyable.
Also, this was a well-done review. Well posed thoughts, good information without too much information, and it captures what the game -feels- like. Kudos and more please. O and no grammar or spelling errors!
I knew nothing about this game was thinking it was going to be trash due to the visuals. Guess it's another game to check out.
Wish listed. Sounds like the perfect balance to my Doom sessions
I’ll be interested to read other reviews and some YouTube plays to see how people’s experiences and opinions differ. Always a fun part of game buying for me.
@manu0 This site is somewhat notorious for overrating a lot of indie games. They award a lot of high scores to games that can't keep my interest.
This actually sounds really neat. It probably is. But that art style... I can see there is real talent behind it, and I am sure others really like it, but... I see it and I really don't like it. It's the kind of cartoony super deformed ugliness that permates western "adult oriented" cartoons that I generally can't stand.
I am really divided. Because reading about the game, it sounds really fun, and I suspect I would enjoy the gameplay, but the visuals just make me gag. And yet, I don't think they are badly done - just very outside what I like. It's like a really well made meal at a high end restaurant, of a food you hate. Intellectually, I can respect the skill and design, but that doesn't extend to it being in my tastes.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/super-daryl-deluxe
The only negative review is from push square.
I really dig it. It just looks like a lot of fun. To the wishlist!!
"Stylish art style"?! [sarcasm]Sure, I guess they could be if you enjoy graphics that look like they were made in Flash by a stoned artist.[/sarcasm]
The core gameplay sounds good, but it seems like they've added too much variety to it with the overblown customization and the exploration with subquests. Either make an arcade-like brawler or a full action-adventure light RPG, but don't mix the two genres together.
Then there's the story, which sounds like (partially due to those stupid attack names) it involves a lot of stupid humor written by people who think that Napoleon Dynamite is somehow charming or that "Elf" is actually a good Christmas movie. I'll pass.
Been playing this the last week or so and it is fantastic and probably my GOTY so far.
I think the way that describes it better is its a side scrolling brawler, with the layout of a metroidvania, the quest system of a MMORPG and the general style of a point and click.
Its super original and very cool.
@BulbasaurusRex then you will miss out it is excellent
Lol, Norman Reedus in his younger years!
The game looks pretty cool. I don't like the price though...
NVC's skip of the week
@Ufaowl saw that too. However, Filip doesn’t seem to have a great taste in games and he was the only one to have played it. Allanah seemed very interested.
Sounds very promising, and I didn't even ever heard of this game before. Looks like the art so much it's on itself already enough reason to pick this up.
As if there weren't enough games already to buy and play this year...
@BulbasaurusRex
Ahem.. Stoned artists aren't necessarily a bad thing you know.
(Ever heard about the guy that created Alice In Wonderland?)
Ps. This game looks awesome man.
Just picked this up on sale, and it is extreme awesome sauce! Highly recommend.
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